Homeostasis is a term known generally to reference a procedure where bleeding or hemorrhage is stopped by either a surgical means or through administration of a coagulation agent. In contrast to many thrombolytic therapies, which administer a clot lysis agent to breakdown or lyse coagulated blood associated with various ischemic diseases, the need to maintain or enhance the coagulation of blood is also a therapeutic and beneficial procedure.
More specifically, the administration of a clot lysis agent such as tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) within several hours following a stroke is useful in the lysis of blood clots for an individual suffering from an ischemic disease, such as ischemic stroke. If excessive or uncontrollable bleeding results from these therapies, however, it is beneficial to coagulate the blood and/or stop the bleeding. As a result, the administration of a lysis-inhibiting agent may be a beneficial procedure for treating the excessive or uncontrolled bleeding.
This beneficial process can be seen through the process of treating individuals suffering from hemophilia. To treat hemophilia, for instance, many individuals are offered various blood clotting agents and factors to cease or maintain the associated bleeding. Often these individuals, however, develop an insensitivity to these clotting factors, thereby creating the need for new clotting agents to control excessive bleeding.
As undesirable and uncontrollable bleeding can occur in connection with many medical disorders and ischemic diseases, for example, acute stroke, acute myocardial infarction, peripheral arterial occlusion, pulmonary embolism, and venous thrombosis, there is a continuing need to advance and improve current therapeutic treatments in both prophylactic and interventional therapies.